Contentment (The Anti-American Dream)

I don’t have to know where I’m going anymore. I’m fine with riding passenger. It’s taken a while to get rid of the bad theology of “The American Dream” (or most of it, I hope). I’m not the “master of my fate” or the “captain of my soul” as stated in Invictus. I’m content, joyful even, to know Jesus is leading me. Even with so many reasons to be discontented, I’ve found God has given me contentment. I’m less “in control” than I have ever been. I honestly don’t even know what this summer or next year will look like, what I’ll be doing, or if things will resolve in so many respects. Yet I know this is where God has led me. So how can I have contentment without any “game plan”?

The more I’ve read the Bible in recent years, the more I see that God gives a promise, not a detailed plan. He never lays out a step by step guide on how to achieve anything. He says, “Follow, and trust me.” From Abraham to the apostles, He calls and they simply go, not knowing exactly where they are going. This is so contrary to our American culture, even a lot of church teaching here in the states. Can you see any place where God says, “I have given you everything it takes to achieve your dreams”? I can’t. He says, “If anyone wants to keep his life safe, he will lose it. If anyone gives up his life because of Me, he will save it.” (Matthew 16:25) Following Him may actually lead you down in life, not up. (Think of many of the prophets and the disciples as examples.) And most whom He chose to give success in the eyes of the world first went through tests of obedience in lowly places. (Think of David and Joseph.) Solomon, the wealthiest of all Israel’s kings, says time and again that the things of this life are like a vapor and meaningless; there are more important things in life than what money can buy. He looks in all the wrong places for happiness and can't find it. He only finds it in God’s ways in the end. Jesus Himself had no place to lay His head. The special and set apart tribe of Levites were given no inheritance like the rest of Israel. God says “I am your portion and your inheritance.” (Numbers 18:21) They were the most blessed by God and had no material wealth or land. God didn’t make any way for them to accumulate any either; they were to trust Him to provide for them.

This doesn’t compute with our modern way of life or our human tendency for self-reliance, but with God blessing equals reliance on Him. We have to realize that there is a spiritual reality of more value than our physical one. In following Him we are not given a guarantee that we will have the “stuff” of this life. God’s blessing doesn’t look like a gorgeous house, dream vacations, a successful business (or ministry!), achieving your dreams and goals, etc…His blessing is found in walking with Him, wherever He may lead. And this is better than anything we could gain in this life apart from Him.

After many, many years I am learning to be satisfied that He is completely in control. He’s in the driver’s seat and I am not. I’ve tasted the difference in wanting my way and wanting His; one is bitter, and one is sweet. No, I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m enjoying the ride. It’s not that life is going so amazingly great, because there is still a lot of not-so-great. I’m enjoying it because of Who is leading me. He makes the darkest places light and the best places pale in comparison with Himself. Even if I go backwards according to this life, I cannot but go forward with Him. I don’t have to know where I’m going right now to know that all the best yet to come.